I volunteered to be the first to give my presentation today. Unlike other times, I wasn't nervous since I wasn't worried about how I was going to say everything or fumbling my speech. I had my slides keyed to text that I read. Knowing what I was going to say took a lot of pressure off me. I had found a text on the Internet about giving academic presentations and one of the suggestions was to read from a script, since academic information tends to be more condensed and the ideas can be presented in a more eloquent way. That was a great suggestion! I guess it is true too. I have been to at least one academic event where the speaker (an older and distinguished doctor of art history) read his presentation from a script and no one seemed to think any less of him. I was thrilled that the teacher seemed to like my presentation and even asked to have a copy on CD when I turn my paper in. I gushed about how I really liked the subject (magic and miracles) and was thinking that it would make for a great dissertation topic if I get into graduate school. I was a little embarrassed about saying that afterward because I might have sounded as if I was trying too hard to appear like an eager student (which I am, but maybe my enthusiasm should have been reined in a bit. I couldn't help it, I really like my topic!). I said something to the effect of, "The more I read, the more I found out that there is to know and the more I wanted to read." I'm sure I must have sounded like a complete nerd to everyone in class. Awkward! At the end of class, one girl actually said that she liked my presentation. Yay! Oh, and Dr. H said that it would have made a good honors paper too! =D